The field of the present disclosure relates to belt conveyor pulleys and, particularly, to wing pulleys that engage a conveyor belt during conveying operations. In various embodiments, the wing pulley includes a central reinforcing disk that strengthens and stabilizes the pulley.
During mining and other bulk transport operations material must be transported over long distances in order to load the material by truck or rail. Further, such material must be unloaded and transported for processing. Among the common means for transport are bulk conveyors which are capable of transporting large amounts of material quickly and reliably and without significant cost. Typical conveyors that may be employed include drag, screw, belt and pneumatic conveyors.
Belt conveyors are well suited for use in many transport applications and are particularly well suited for use in mining operations. Belt conveying systems include at least two pulleys and a conveyor belt which rotates about the two pulleys. Material is loaded onto the belt at a tail section and is unloaded via gravity at a head section. A tail pulley and head pulley allow the belt to travel from the point at which material is loaded to the point it is unloaded and back again. The conveying system may also include take-up pulleys to provide proper belt tensioning, bend pulleys to change the direction of travel of the belt and snub pulleys, typically located adjacent the drive pulley, to increase the contact with the drive pulley and/or provide belt tensioning. The belt may be driven at a number of positions including the tail section or head section of the conveyor system.
At the tail section of the conveying system (the section at which material is loaded onto the conveyor belt), some amount of bulk material may undesirably fall on the lower portion of the belt traveling toward the tail pulley rather than on the upper portion of the belt traveling away from the tail pulley. This material comes into contact with the tail pulley and causes wear of the tail pulley components, and may even lead to pulley failure, resulting in costly downtime and/or replacements. Unless this material is properly discharged, it may be rebroadcast onto the belt causing further wear of the pulley.
A continuing need exists for conveyor pulleys that are capable of discharging unwanted material from the conveyor system without sacrificing pulley strength and reliability relative to conventional pulley designs. A further need also exists for reliable conveying systems and methods for conveying bulk materials that use such conveyor pulleys.